A Brief History On December 20, 1968, the killer later known as “The Zodiac Killer” shot and murdered two victims in Vallejo, California, the first confirmed victims of this still unidentified killer. Along with a few other murderers, Zodiac remains unidentified and is the topic of numerous articles, books and speculation. Today we list a few of those perplexing murders and murderers that have not been solved definitively. What other crimes and criminals would you add to this list? (Tupac and Biggie?) Digging Deeper Zodiac murders, 1960’s-1970’s. At least 5 deaths are attributed to this mysterious and taunting murderer, with…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.
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A Brief History On December 19, 1912, US President William H. Taft pardoned the skipper of the ill-fated cruise ship, the PS General Slocum, which had burned and sunk on June 15, 1904, costing over 1000 people their lives. Captain William Van Schaick had been convicted of negligence in the incident and had served 3 ½ years in prison at Sing Sing prior to his pardon. Digging Deeper The General Slocum was a cruise steamship built in 1891 that had made a career of taking sightseers around the waters of New York City. Unfortunately, her owners and operators, including Captain…
A Brief History On December 18, 1982, arguably the greatest combat pilot in German military history died of a stroke in Rosenheim, Bavaria, West Germany. Hans-Ulrich Rudel is credited with shooting down only 9 enemy airplanes, and yet eclipses such German legendary aces as Baron Manfred von Richthofen (80 aerial kills, #1 during World War II) and Erich Hartman, history’s all-time leading ace with 353 air to air kills without ever being shot down or forced to land by enemy airplanes (all during World War II). Rudel performed his aerial heroics flying dive bomber missions. We used the occasion of…
A Brief History On December 17, 1989, The Simpsons premiered on American television with their first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” Not only does The Simpsons rank as probably the greatest animated television show of all time, it is also the longest running scripted primetime television series in TV history. Today we take a look at what we consider the 5 greatest animated television series of all time. As always, feel free to disagree with those that we have chosen and tell us which shows we should not have picked and what shows we have overlooked. (Sorry, Looney…
A Brief History On December 15, 1973, with a vote of 13-0, the American Psychiatric Association agreed to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders. We marked this historical event with our article, “Is Homosexuality a Mental Disorder?” Today we take a look at some of the many famous or important historical figures that are known or believed to have been homosexual or something other than straight heterosexual. Some on the list you may be familiar with, while others may come as a surprise. Some on the list may only be the subject of conjecture, with no definitive historical…